That sinking feeling

Atascadero

It seems we are between a rock (oil) and a hard place (nuclear generation) and they both leave us cold. To quote from Wayne Madsen’s “Voices” article “Nuclear energy is neither green nor renewable” (“Nuclear Not Green Enough for Solution,” The Tribune, July 19, 2008).

He stated all the reasons this country (and the rest of the world) should not proceed, promote, or depend on nuclear energy production: safety, terrorism, exorbitant expense, waste disposal ($90 billion for Yucca Mountain, if and when it is licensed), security for the waste for 100,000 years that is radioactive, AND nuclear proliferation.

We’ve all experienced the high cost of oil from filling our gas tanks, to the war in Iraq, to environmental pollution. After reading an alarming New Times article regarding the sunken tanker six miles off our coast, with three million gallons of oil in her 60-year-old, rusting hull (“Taking Watch on the Montebello, July 17, 2008), this brings the two GoliathsÜtogether. Diablo Canyon and the threat of a major oil spill—add in the terrorist (or lunatic) attack, or earthquake on that tanker and we have the ingredients for a tragedy that would shake us to our core.

Writing or calling our representatives here and in Monterey County, and stating our concern and call to action to this ticking time bomb, would be the first step in sopping up the goo before it is upon us.